IRS Makes a Strange House Call on Matt Taibbi

[WyattEarp]

What I just wrote in the Trump thread. Most civil servants in Tory Ontario now have "pronouns" in their email sigs. The Maple Leafs and Raptors both include trans people in their "inclusion" PR material. "Woke" has nothing to do with "Marxism", except in your mind and those of your rightie buddies. Unless you consider Austen Matthews a KGB agent.

The Law Society of Ontario also has a "inclusivity" section which advocates for gays, natives, blacks and - I would guess - trans people. The Law Society is not a Marxist institution, Earp.

People like you throw in the term "Marxist" randomly and incorrectly because they think it's pejorative. It goes along with Boebert and Marge calling Dem policies on gun control and inclusion "Marxist extremism". It's garbage thinking. It's dumb. And it's intellectual junk food directed at half-wits. You can do better than this.

One of the tactics that the Bullshit Right engages in is vilification. You slander something enough and you can prevent real debate, because the conversation becomes a slanging contest.

I expect you to stop doing this stuff.

Perhaps you didn't read my post.

........idealistic and paramount focus on equity particularly in economic outcomes.

By the way, I'm the only one calling out a member for repeatedly throwing around slurs like flaming gay and rump pirate and I'm the asshole. There is principle and then there is simply just partisanship without principle.

 

[Frankfooter]

In my view, Marxism is the idealistic and paramount focus on equity particularly in economic outcomes.

Yet every single right winger backs socialism in some form.
Public roads
Public schools (well, some do)
Police
Social security (some)

Its all about degrees of how much socialism you will accept.
Yelling 'Marxism' is like whining about trans destroying the US, its a dog whistle.

 

[Valcazar]

As I said, it's black and white. If the IRS says it never happened or a low level agent is disciplined, this could be resolved quickly.

How?
"We didn't send someone."
"You're lying."

Oops.
Story keeps going.

Silence on the matter will make it fester. I always said it could be a low level bureaucrat acting independently, but if the IRS circles the wagon around them.......bigger mistake.

What mistake?
If someone went and talked to Taibbi about an issue with his taxes... which is a thing that happens in the world, why does the IRS have to worry about that?

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why this is supposed to be concerning.
There doesn't appear to have been a threat issued.
There doesn't appear to be an audit.
There doesn't appear to be much of anything.

Is there a version of this story where there are threats and intimidation?
Even the implication of such?

I feel like this hasn't even gotten out of the starting gate, so why you are making such an effort to find reasons why it might be something huge is weird to me.

The problem with your argument is that it simply refuses to acknowledge the existence of political patronage. Is anyone foolish enough to believe Washington bureaucrats are politically benign? They demonstrate they aren't all the time.

Of course there is, so what?
If we get an actual story of the IRS harassing Taibbi, maybe we have patronage to look at as a motive, but we don't even have that yet.

This is one of the silliest arguments I have seen an intelligent person make on social media.

Because this whole thing isn't worth something less silly.

I would avoid working arguments backwards in such a hard fashion. Wyatt's Razor: If the IRS did visit Matt Taibbi, they most likely had no good reason to come to his house.

Wyatt, you are usually much smarter than this.
But sure, if that's your starting axiom, you run with it.

 

[Valcazar]

And no one thinks Trump is a "threat to democracy". That would require him to be somewhat competent, instead of a senile, low IQ performing orang-utan. He would certainly like to be king. So would my ex girlfriend's poodle. IMO, the poodle has a better shot, just based on comparative intellect.

I think Trump and Trumpism is a threat to democracy.
The fact he is an incompetent idiot in many ways doesn't make him not one.

If it was about his Iron Will as a One-Man Green Lantern of Evil then yes, the fact he's a clownish corrupt gangster would make him not a threat.
But that's not what it is about.

 

[WyattEarp]

How?
"We didn't send someone."
"You're lying."

Oops.
Story keeps going.

I don't think so. Now days, I don't think I could go to the park without there being evidence. If there wasn't any evidence that the IRS didn't make a house call and they denied the house call, that would likely be the end of it.

What mistake?
If someone went and talked to Taibbi about an issue with his taxes... which is a thing that happens in the world, why does the IRS have to worry about that?

I'm sure the IRS will welcome the chance to explain their actions. House oversight of a Federal agency is perfectly normal and expected thing.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why this is supposed to be concerning.

Because the IRS doesn't make unannounced house calls. You are inadvertently making the case that they are a politically benign institution or that IRS agents never act with political motivations. Their history proves differently. Again, the IRS will have this a wonderful opportunity to explain their actions with our great system of checks and balances.

I feel like this hasn't even gotten out of the starting gate, so why you are making such an effort to find reasons why it might be something huge is weird to me.

Because it was reported in the news. You might not like the outlets covering it, but it seems newsworthy if true. This is not a Matt Taibbi story anymore. It is now an IRS story.

 

[Valcazar]

I don't think so. Now days, I don't think I could go to the park without there being evidence. If there wasn't any evidence that the IRS didn't make a house call and they denied the house call, that would likely be the end of it.

You have a lot more faith than I.

No one will ever need to present evidence of this to keep it going.
Absence of Evidence will just be proof they covered it up.

It only goes away if it is boring and the fan base didn't run with it.

Also, of course, is the "there was a visit, which was perfectly innocent" option. This is the best of all worlds for the story.
An agent was there - so they get to run with all the implications that it was malicious. If nothing ever happens to Taibbi, then it is because they stopped it.

I'm sure the IRS will welcome the chance to explain their actions. House oversight of a Federal agency is perfectly normal and expected thing.

I very much doubt they will be called to explain, but the GOP will make a lot of noise about how they have to.
Again - no explanation will be accepted as truth anyway if this is the story they want to push.

Because the IRS doesn't make unannounced house calls. You are inadvertently making the case that they are a politically benign institution or that IRS agents never act with political motivations. Their history proves differently. Again, the IRS will have this a wonderful opportunity to explain their actions with our great system of checks and balances.

See above.

Because it was reported in the news. You might not like the outlets covering it, but it seems newsworthy if true. This is not a Matt Taibbi story anymore. It is now an IRS story.

Who is reporting it?
People are reporting that Taibbi said it. I saw that.
The WSJ had an opinion piece on it, that's not reporting.

Who is reporting this? As in actually, you know, reporting on it - not just saying that Taibbi said it happened?

I mean, I get that Fox news and company are making a Narrative out of it - but they do that with all kinds of bullshit.
When it goes past the stage of "Matt Taibbi said something" I will pay attention.

 

[WyattEarp]

Who is reporting this? As in actually, you know, reporting on it - not just saying that Taibbi said it happened?

I mean, I get that Fox news and company are making a Narrative out of it - but they do that with all kinds of bullshit.
When it goes past the stage of "Matt Taibbi said something" I will pay attention.

Then fantastic, this is all a big misunderstanding and it will be cleared up in no time.

 

[mandrill]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644064242419617803

Little, fuckmouth bullshit-machine Taibbi skinned by Mehdi Hassan.

If Taibbi lies like this, then he probably lies about the IRS visit. Right?

 

[mandrill]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644093075441201153

 

[Valcazar]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644064242419617803

Little, fuckmouth bullshit-machine Taibbi skinned by Mehdi Hassan.

If Taibbi lies like this, then he probably lies about the IRS visit. Right?

The IRS story didn't take off so it's been shelved for later.
But it was still useful.
It will now sit as some sort of vague memory where people who need it can just say, "Do you remember when the IRS sent goons to Taibbi's house to intimidate him?" when they need to talk about how Biden and the Deep State are evil.

 

[mandrill]

The IRS story didn't take off so it's been shelved for later.
But it was still useful.
It will now sit as some sort of vague memory where people who need it can just say, "Do you remember when the IRS sent goons to Taibbi's house to intimidate him?" when they need to talk about how Biden and the Deep State are evil.

Taibbi seems to be the classic case of a little punk who would make up pretty much anything to move up into the next notch in the "rightie outrage big boy ladder". Right now, he's a nothing. So he really has to push it to break out and start making decent money. My guess is that he made up most of the IRS story - and most of the rest of his oeuvre - to get a little attention that he couldn't foster any other way.

 

[Valcazar]

Taibbi seems to be the classic case of a little punk who would make up pretty much anything to move up into the next notch in the "rightie outrage big boy ladder". Right now, he's a nothing. So he really has to push it to break out and start making decent money. My guess is that he made up most of the IRS story - and most of the rest of his oeuvre - to get a little attention that he couldn't foster any other way.

I don't think that's right.
He is the son of a famous journalist.
He got to fuck around Russia and play at being rich for a while during the post-USSR era.
When he hit his 30s and wanted to be serious, he had the connections to get job offers right away thanks to his dad.
He did very well for himself as someone who was against big finance post 2008. He was a pretty big deal for a while.

He started to lose cachet and wasn't "the young badboy who is the next Hunter S Thompson" over time and then during #MeToo he got a lot of flack over his former behavior in Russia.

He kind of apologized but realized quickly enough that being "anti-woke"/"MeToo has gone too far"/"Identity politics is a distraction from the real issues" was something he liked doing and also paid really well. That's his audience now, so he writes for his audience and substack and other subscription models means he makes more money for less work, so why fuck with that?

 

[mandrill]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644286641698140160

This is really bad. Taibbi is visibly squirming and at a loss for words to defend himself.

 

[mandrill]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644434173833146396

 

[Valcazar]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644286641698140160

This is really bad. Taibbi is visibly squirming and at a loss for words to defend himself.

Taibbi wasn't ready to have to answer questions from someone who did research.
He doesn't do the work himself anymore, he apparently has people for that, so he doesn't actually know what he's talking about most of the time.

 

[Frankfooter]

Taibbi wasn't ready to have to answer questions from someone who did research.
He doesn't do the work himself anymore, he apparently has people for that, so he doesn't actually know what he's talking about most of the time.

If he were a journalist his career would be done.
But as a right wing troll its just starting.

Though he lost his biggest supporter....

 

[mandrill]

Mehdi Hasan Dismantles The Entire Foundation Of The Twitter Files As Matt Taibbi Stumbles To Defend It

So here’s the deal. If you think the Twitter Files are still something legit or telling or powerful, watch this 30 minute interview that Mehdi Hasan did with Matt Taibbi (at Taibbi’s own demand): H…

www.techdirt.com

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644470250476564480